What other major conditions apply, how is the status obtained, and what renewal, document-validity, retention or loss rules matter?
For a five-year residence application for St Helenian status, Schedule II requires good character, an intention to make St Helena the principal home, presence at the start of the five-year period, no more than 500 days absent during it or 100 days in its last 12 months, and no imprisonment or immigration breach during the relevant periods. An absence dispensation is possible only under the Schedule’s specified connection, exceptional-circumstance and public-interest conditions. A person of full age and capacity applies to the Immigration Control Board, which must grant a declaration if Schedule II is met; qualifying children may be included under section 15(3A). The Board may revoke a declaration obtained by fraud, false representation or material concealment after the regulated representation procedure. A certificate holder under section 15(3) or (3A) loses status after ten continuous years absent. The capture identifies no periodic renewal or document-expiry rule for the underlying status.
See recorded sources
Limits of the record- This is the general five-year grant route; Schedule II also provides a separate three-year spouse/life-partner route, not imported into this answer. The captured Ordinance is read with the 2025 revocation and 2026 future-commencement notices.
- https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/documents/Immigration-Ordinance.pdf
Persons having by right or by grant St Helenian status
15. (1) A person has St Helenian status by right of birth if the person—
(a) is an islander; or
(b) was born in St Helena on or after 18th October 1999 and, at the time of his or
her birth, his or her father or mother had St Helenian status.
(2) A person has St Helenian status by right of descent if he or she was born
outside St Helena on or after 18th October 1999 and, at the time of his or her birth his father
or mother had St Helenian status—
(a) by right of birth;
(b) by descent, or by virtue of a declaration made under
subsection (3), and was ordinarily resident in St Helena; or
(c) by right of descent, which he or she acquired by having at least one parent who
who had St Helenian status by right of birth.
(3) If, on an application for the grant of St Helenian status made by a person of
full age and capacity, the Board is satisfied that the applicant fulfils the requirements of
Schedule II, it must grant the person a declaration that he or she has such status.
(3A) If the Board issues, or has issued, a declaration under subsection (3) to
an applicant (“the primary applicant”) it may grant such a certificate also to a person
who—
(a) is a child of the primary applicant and is under the age of 18 years;
(b) is or was, at the time the certificate is issued to the primary applicant, residing
with the primary applicant in St Helena; and
(c) has or had so resided during the period of residence in St Helena which is the
basis upon which the certificate is granted to the primary applicant.
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(4) A person who claims to have St Helenian status under subsection (1) or (2)
may apply to the Board for a declaration that he or she has such status, and the Board—
(a) if satisfied, after making such enquiries as the Board thinks fit, that the person
has such status, must issue a declaration to that effect;
(b) in any other case, must refuse the application.
(5) An application may be made under subsection (4) by a parent or guardian of
any minor whom the parent or guardian believes to have St Helenian status.
Deprivation and loss of status
16. (1) Subject to this section, the Board may, if it is satisfied that a
declaration granted under section 15(3) or section 15(4) was obtained by means of fraud,
false representation or the concealment of any material fact of a nature which, had the true
facts been made known to the Board at the time of application, would, in the opinion of the
Board, have justified refusal of such a declaration, revoke the declaration.
(2) Regulations made under section 43 must provide for the procedure to be
adopted by the Board in relation to the power conferred by subsection (1), and such rules
must, in particular, require that the person to whom the relevant declaration was granted must
have an opportunity to make representations to the Board before the power is exercised.
(3) A person to whom a certificate of St Helenian status has been granted under
section 15(3) or (3A) ceases to have such status if he or she is absent from St Helena for a
continuous period of 10 years.
- https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/documents/Immigration-Ordinance.pdf
REQUIREMENTS FOR ST HELENIAN STATUS
1. Except where paragraph 2 applies, and subject to paragraphs 3 and 4, the
requirements for the grant of St Helenian status are that the applicant—
(a) is of good character;
(b) intends, in the event of a certificate being granted to him or her, that his or her
home or (if he or she has more than one) his or her principal home will be in
St Helena; and
(c) was in St Helena at the beginning of a period of 5 years ending with the date
of the application, and—
(i) the total number of days on which he or she was absent from St Helena
in that period does not exceed 500;
(ii) the number of days on which he or she was absent from St Helena in
the period of 12 months so ending does not exceed 100; and
(iii) he or she was not in either of those periods undergoing a sentence of
imprisonment nor in breach of any of the laws relating to immigration;
or the Governor in Council has granted (under paragraph 4) a dispensation
from the requirements of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) (or either of them) of this
paragraph.
2. Subject to paragraphs 3 and 4, the requirements for the grant of St Helenian status in
the case of a person who is the spouse or life partner of a person having St Helenian status are
that—
(a) the marriage or life partnership has been in existence for at least 3 years;
(b) the applicant is of good character;
(c) the applicant was in St Helena at the beginning of a period of 3 years ending
with the date of the application and that—
(i) the total number of days on which the applicant was absent from St
Helena in that period does not exceed 150;
(ii) the number of days on which the applicant was absent from St Helena
in the period of twelve months so ending does not exceed 100; and
(iii) the applicant was not in either of those periods undergoing a sentence
of imprisonment nor in breach of any of the laws relating to
immigration;
or that the Governor in Council has granted (under paragraph 4) a dispensation
from the requirements of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) (or either of them) of this
paragraph;
but nothing in this paragraph prevents a person who is the spouse or life partner of a person
having St Helenian status from applying for status under paragraph 1.
3. Regulations made under section 43 may provide that—
(i) periods of time spent in St Helena are to be counted as time spent outside St
Helena; or
(ii) periods of time spent outside St Helena are to be counted as time spent in St
Helena.
4. The Governor in Council may grant a dispensation from the requirements of
paragraph 1 or 2 (as the case may be) as to the number of days absent from St Helena, if he or
she is satisfied that—
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(i) that the applicant for the dispensation has a substantial economic, social or
historical connection with St Helena;
(ii) there are exceptional circumstances (such as, but not limited to, shipping
schedules or illness) why strict compliance with the requirements should be
dispensed with; and
(iii) it would be in the public interest to grant the dispensation.
